Winner Takes All
Folc4evernaday
Part 30
***
The next day, Lois sat at her desk, avoiding any and all contact with Clark. He finally took solace in the conference room to let out a yell of frustration. He needed to tell her what was going on, but she wasn’t even giving him the time of day.
Perry knocked lightly on the door, “Everything okay in here, son?”
Clark’s head jerked up, “Wha? Yeah, sorry, Chief. I’m just…” He waved his hands helplessly in the air. “I don’t know what to do.”
Perry smiled knowingly, “Son, I’ve seen her like this before. Her doors are locked. Her alarm’s on. And you ain’t getting in.”
“So, what am I supposed to do?” Clark asked.
Perry shrugged, “Women are fragile creatures. Whatever it is you’ve done…” At Clark’s aghast expression, “..or she thinks you’ve done…You just got to let her work it out.” He put a supportive hand on Clark’s shoulder, “You gonna be okay, son?”
“I don’t know.” He sighed. “I guess giving her some space won’t hurt.” He headed towards the elevator. Perry just shook his head.
***
“Dr. Leek, I’m telling you there’s something seriously wrong here. So many of these frogs have gone missing. I think someone is breaking in and stealing them.” Dr. Klein argued with his superior.
Dr. Leek just smiled, “Dr. Klein, I would know if S.T.A.R. Labs had been broken into. Leave the management responsibilities to me, would you? You’ve obviously just miscalculated somewhere…”
Dr. Klein sighed, nodding at Dr. Leek and turning back towards his work. He didn’t believe Dr. Leek for a minute.
***
“Lois! Robbery and hostage situation at the Metropolis Merchant’s Bank. Shake a leg!” Perry hollered across the newsroom.
Lois nodded, grabbing the fax in Perry’s hand. “I’m on it.”
She raced out of the newsroom, heading towards the elevators. Hopefully, a good juicy headline would get her out of this rut she was in. This wasn’t her. Crying at work. Unable to dig into the story she’d been working on all these weeks. She needed to take charge and get a hold of herself. She was Lois Lane, independent career woman. She would be damned if she was left crying over any man again…even Superman.
***
Lois exited out of a cab, approaching one of the officers that stood writing the report. “Lois Lane.” She showed her press ID to the officer. “Daily Planet. What happened?”
“Tense stand-off until Superman got here.” The cop said.
“Really?” She said, trying to squash the knot that was forming in her stomach.
“He flew in the top window, apprehended the perp, freed the hostages. He’s over there.” The cop pointed. Superman stood by a Metropolis P.D. van watching the cops load the perp into the vehicle.
Lois watched emotionless. She really didn’t want to have to deal with Clark right now, but her hand had been forced. She was still a professional. She advanced forward, “Superman!” She waved her hand towards him. He caught her gaze but seemed a bit hesitant.
At that moment the perp broke free of the two policemen and tried to run off. Superman took after him, grabbing him by the collar. He lifted the perp into the air then tossed him twenty feet away into the awaiting police van. The policemen smiled, then shook Superman’s hand, offering thanks.
Lois stared in disbelief as she advanced towards him. “Superman?”
He looked at her slightly confused, “Yes?”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” He smiled. His eyes ran up and down her body. She tugged her jacket more securely around her. “Do I know you?”
She looked at him slightly concerned, “It’s me…Lois..”
He smiled as if recognizing her for the first time. “Oh, yeah.” He nodded then without warning, he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her towards him.
“Get off of me, you jerk!” She slapped him across the face. She stared at Superman in shock. He may have looked and sounded like Clark, but this wasn’t Clark. She took a few steps back, keeping some distance between her and this imposter.
“You know that doesn’t hurt.” He said mockingly.
“Don’t you dare try something like that again!” She hissed, turning on her heel to get as far away from him as possible.
“Women,” He muttered under his breath before taking off.
***
The LNN newscaster’s voice echoed through the halls of the District Attorney’s office. “As you can see here. Even Superman’s supposed close friends aren’t safe from his destructive behavior. Here in this footage, you can see where he is forcibly grabbing Lois Lane and trying to kiss her. She has most recently married her partner, Clark Kent; another close friend of Superman’s. Her reaction?” The footage showed in slow motion how Lois pushed him away and slapped him. “Well, let’s just say, Superman has found one woman that doesn’t give into his charms. Metropolis still is baffled by the recent behavior change in our formerly friendly superhero. That’s all for now.”
Mayson clicked the television off. “Enough of this. I knew he was a criminal before. Now he’s forcing himself on women?” She rolled her eyes. “Somebody’s got to stop this.”
“I don’t know, Ms. Drake. Superman’s always seemed like a generally nice person. I don’t think he would do something like that.” Lucy argued.
“I saw him making out with that reporter the other day,” Lana added. “He’s just a player that thinks he can get whatever he wants because he’s Superman.”
“I agree,” Mayson said firmly.
“I don’t. My sister has a pretty good judge of character. There are some people she’s been a little off on, but I don’t think she’s wrong about Superman. Something else is going on here.” Lucy said.
“Whatever.” Mayson rolled her eyes. “I have to go get this warrant signed. Let’s see Superman try and stop Justice from coming after his girlfriend.”
***
“Lois, what in the Sam Hill happened?” Perry asked, taking in Lois’ disheveled appearance as she stalked into the newsroom.
“I don’t want to talk about it, Perry.” She hissed. “I’m going home.” She grabbed her things then headed for the elevator.
He looked at the clock on the wall. “But it’s only three!”
“I don’t care!” She called. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” With that, she was gone.
***
Lois sat in the back of the cab, going over what had just happened in her mind. Clark had never acted like that. He had always made sure she was a willing participant whenever he kissed her…made love to her…touched her.. What was going on?
She had said so many awful things to him yesterday. He’d been telling the truth. That hadn’t been him. Why had she been so easily fooled? She knew Clark. She knew him better than anyone. Why had she for a moment doubted his love for her?
She needed to see Clark.
***
Clark stood in the shower stall, staring blankly at the porcelain on the walls as the water beat against his back. It had long since turned ice cold, but he didn’t care. He felt like hell. He had gone out on a few rescues only to be met by angry faces, blaming him for the out of control Superman in Metropolis. Then there were the crazy women, throwing themselves at him. He shook his head in disgust. The only woman he wanted wasn’t even speaking to him.
A knock at the door caught his attention. He drug himself out of his self-despair and turned the water off, pulling on a pair of jeans and heading for the door. The knocking got more insistent. “That has to be Lois.” He muttered. Out of habit, he reached for his glasses. He opened the door only to find Mayson Drake on the other end.
Mayson gave him a once over then looked back up, “Hi. I need to talk to you about something.”
“Uh, sure. Just give me a minute to put on a shirt.” He said, turning back towards the bedroom.
“Oh, no! Actually, it’s really really warm in here.” He watched in amusement as she brushed her jacket off. “Mmmm hmmm, much better.”
Clark rolled his eyes and headed towards his bedroom, “I’ll just be a sec.” He put on his black button up shirt that Lois liked so much. He was just buttoning it up when he heard an insistent knock on the front door. “Grand central station.” He muttered. He reached for the knob and opened the door.
“Hi,” Lois said, eying him appreciatively. “Can I come in?”
“Yeah.” He opened the door and Lois stopped cold for a minute when she saw Mayson sitting on the couch.
“Mayson.” Her breath caught. “What are you doing here?”
“I needed to talk to discuss this Superman fiasco with the two of you. You two are both his friends. You know how to contact him. I need to bring him in for questioning.” Mayson said.
“Excuse me?” Lois said, accusingly.
“Are you honestly going to just let him continue to get away with what he did today?” Mayson asked. “It was all over the news, Lois.”
Lois was seething. “I really don’t think that’s any of your business.”
“I have the tape.” She said, waving it in front of them before laying it on the table.
Tape? What exactly had happened? Had his double hurt Lois? He looked at her in concern.
“In order for you to do anything I have to be willing to press charges; which I’m not,” Lois replied coldly.
Mayson rolled her eyes and stood up, gathering her things. “Look, I’m not trying to step on your toes or anything, but he does have to be stopped. That perp he threw into the police van today had to have stitches. This is what I was talking about. He’s a vigilante. Just because someone commits a crime doesn’t mean Superman has carte blanche to beat the hell out of them. We have a justice system for a reason.”
“A corrupt one.” Lois corrected.
“And I still need to speak to him about destroying evidence in our investigation with Intergang. Those rifles were damaged beyond repair along with the computer systems. I can’t get anything off of them.” Mayson griped.
“Ms. Drake, I’m sure Superman didn’t mean to destroy the evidence. He was just trying to keep the rifles from going off and killing people.” Clark interjected.
“Well, he needs to find another way.” She replied coolly. “Think about what I said. I don’t want to be forced into taking drastic measures.” With that, she left.
“I don’t want to be forced into taking drastic measures.” Lois mimicked as the door slammed shut. “Who does she think she is, Perry Mayson?”
“I don’t know,” Clark said, flopping down on the couch. He picked up the tape Mayson had left. “So, what was she talking about?”
“What the hell is going on, Clark?” Lois asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
Clark sighed, “I don’t know. There’s someone who….looks exactly like me…has all my powers…but obviously is NOT me.” Lois took a seat next to him, staring hesitantly at him as he spoke. “I ran into him last night after I left you at Lucy’s. From what I’ve been able to gather he’s been performing a bunch of rescues here in Metropolis and overseas over the past few months…showing up more and more…. Lois, I promise you I never kissed Linda…Never ever ever…I would never do that to you.”
Lois sighed. “I know. I think part of me knew…knew you wouldn’t do that…That’s why it hurt so much ….I KNEW you wouldn’t do that, but the video footage…. I mean, what was I supposed to think when I had that image staring back at me like that?”
Clark sighed, “I know. I’m sorry.” He leaned in to kiss her.
“No, I’m sorry. I should never have doubted you.” She leaned against his shoulder.
“Hey, it did look bad. How many times do you think, ‘Hey, is this an evil double doing this or not?’ I didn’t know what to think about it myself.” He wrapped an arm around her cautiously, “So, what happened earlier?”
Lois took a deep breath. “I went to cover an armed robbery/ hostage situation. I was interviewing one of the officers. They said Superman had shown up and diffused the situation. I went to go interview you-or him…I then saw the assailant trying to get away. ‘Superman’ stopped him by throwing him twenty feet away into a police van. It had to have knocked the guy out cold. That’s when I knew something wasn’t right. I then approached him. He didn’t recognize me. Then before I knew it he grabbed me and tried to kiss me.”
“He WHAT??” Clark could feel his anger beginning to boil.
“I pushed him away and slapped him. He said something about it not hurting him and I walked away. After that, I knew something was up because I knew you’d never act like that.” Lois sighed, “Clark, I am so sorry I blew up at you yesterday. I really…” He leaned in to capture her mouth.
“Enough of that.” He whispered against her lips. “I forgive you. Does this mean we’ve made up?” He asked cautiously.
Lois nodded, wrapping her arms around him, as she moved to straddle him. “Yes. I’m sorry for blowing up at you.”
He sought her mouth out eagerly, as he tightened his arms around her waist. “It’s okay.”
“Oh, one more thing!” She traced the outline of his nose with her index finger, “What were you thinking; calling the Kerth Award Board of Administration? And don’t try to deny it? You were the only one I’ve ever told about him stealing my story.”
Clark laughed. “That was Perry…”
“What?” Lois was aghast.
“Hey, all I told him was I’d been browsing through` some old stories in the archives and come across this article that looked like your work. He said it had been printed while he’d been out of town; so he’d never seen it. I told him I knew your work pretty well after working with you so long. I’d found no record of Mr. Cluny writing ever reaching the expertise it had in that one article. Perry agreed with me and said he’d look into it. I guess the Kerth Administration agreed as well since they’re investigating it.” He offered her an apologetic smile. “I didn’t mean to upset you, Sweetheart. I just hated that he was getting away with taking so much away from you.”
Lois’ face seemed to soften, “I just wish you’d told me. I was taken completely by surprise.”
“I’m sorry.” He whispered leaning up to kiss her. He felt her arms tighten around his neck as he deepened the kiss.
She moaned in pleasure against his lips, pressing her body against his solid frame. “I missed this.” She murmured, running a seductive hand down his chest as she brushed the shirt off his shoulders.
“Mmmm hmmm,” He murmured his agreement as he lifted her sweater above her head. He expertly popped the clasp to her bra as he planted open-mouthed kisses along her bust. She laughed in response as she disentangled herself from the shirt, tossing it on the couch. He lifted the white lace from her mounds and tossed them aside.
“Oh, Clark…Oh, God….” She moaned as he buried his face into the valley between her breasts.
God, he’d missed her. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her more securely against him. He felt her back arch against his touch as she fisted his hair. “Loiss…” He hissed.
“Clark!” She yelled when he scooped her up in his arms, carrying her towards the bedroom.
“Need more…room…” He rasped out as he walked determined towards the bedroom with her wrapped securely against him.
The phone from the kitchen rang, causing him to stop dead in his tracks. “If that’s Jimmy…” Lois began.
“I think he knows better,” Clark muttered. He changed direction, carrying her towards the kitchen. He set her down on the counter, then turned around to reach for the phone, “Hello?”
“Kent?” Perry White’s voice echoed from the other end of the phone.
“Oh, hi, Chief…” He held in a gasp as Lois wrapped her arms around him from behind, pressing her nude chest against his back.
“Listen, Lois kinda cut out of here early and I wanted to make sure everything was okay…she’s getting pretty far along and ….well, I’m just checking to make sure everything’s okay.” He held in a moan as her lips grazed against his neck. He held in a hiss as she popped the top button of his jeans and slipped her hand below the waistband.
‘Oh, God, she’s killing me.’
“Clark? Everything okay, son?” Perry’s voice intruded on his reverie.
“Mmmm hmmm,” He suppressed a groan as her hand moved up his chest and began to draw random patterns on his chest. Her other hand seemed to be at work against his lower back as she fumbled with the fasten to her own jeans. “Ev..erything is just…perr…fect…Chief…” He managed to squeak out. ‘Yeah right.’ He heard a resounding flop from behind him as the warm fabric hit the ground, brushing against his lower calves.
“Well, I know you two have had a rough couple of days…what with the changes that come with the baby…the wedding…this Superman fiasco…I heard what…” He bit his lower lip, as her warm breath teased his ear.
“Loiss…” He hissed in a hushed whisper. “Stop..”
She placed a kiss along his collarbone, pushing his jeans down further, “You don’t mean that.” She whispered.
“I heard what happened earlier today. Clark? Son? Are you there?”
He let out a shuddered breath, “I…I..I’m here, Chief. Yeah, I…” She tugged at his earlobe with her teeth, gently pulling on it as she wrapped her legs around him from behind, “I…I really…ahem…really got to go. Can we talk about this tomorrow? I…”
“Okay, sure, son. You sure you’re all right?”
“Never better.” He managed to squeak out before hanging up the phone.
“Finally…” Lois purred wrapping her arms around his neck as he turned to face her. “You are too nice.”
“You are in sooo much trouble, Mrs. Kent.” He whispered, leaning in to kiss her as she wrapped her legs around his waist.
Lois let out a light giggle. “What did I do?”
He gathered her up in his arms, raining a trail of heated kisses along her collarbone. “You know exactly what you did.” He murmured, pressing her back against the cabinets as he tightened his arms around her.
“We were interrupted…Oh, God….Clark…..”
***
TBC...
